Johnson, track share special bond

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Jimmie Johnson doesn’t dwell on the negatives when he thinks about himself or his Hendrick Motorsports team when it comes to Martinsville Speedway.

That’s more than understandable, considering he has won eight times at the track in 24 career starts.

The first one, however, was hardly a day for celebration.

It was Oct. 24, 2004, the day a plane carrying 10 members of the Hendrick Motorsports family on their way to the race crashed in fog-shrouded mountains a few miles from the speedway. No one survived, so when Johnson prepares to return to NASCAR’s smallest track his thoughts drift in many directions.

“Like today,” he said. “I flew up. It’s overcast. It’s cloudy. The whole week leading into Martinsville, I’ve been excited about coming here to race and feel like we have a great chance to win. I wake up this morning and it’s overcast, and I just can’t help but think of the airplane incident.”

Among those lost in the crash were Ricky Hendrick, the son of team owner Rick Hendrick, and John Hendrick, the owner’s brother.

Johnson and the other team members didn’t know of the crash until the race was over.

“I look back on that day a lot and think about how things went down,” Johnson said.“NASCAR called all four cars to pit lane. We get to pit lane, and there are police officers standing around our cars and I’m like, ‘What in the world has happened?’ Normally there are NASCAR officials, not police officers.

“I walk through that from time to time. I hope to never ever go through anything like that again.”

Thankfully for Johnson and the Hendrick organization, there are also many great memories of the 0.526-mile oval. Johnson has added seven more victories on the track, teammate Jeff Gordon has won eight times and Geoff Bodine gave the fledgling team its first victory on the paper clip 30 years ago.

It all makes the oldest track in NASCAR’s top series an emotional stop no matter what.

Matt Kenseth’s longtime frustration with Martinsville seemingly ended last October when he finished second to Jeff Gordon on the 0.

526-mile oval. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, will start on the front row today, with Kenseth starting sixth.

“They used to always pick me to watch because they figured I would be the wreck or the action,” he said.

Hendrick’s teams have won 20 more Sprint Cup races at Martinsville since Bodine won the first one.

“To see Rick and his face and the expression that he has, and you can sense in his voice and in his eyes - you can see how much it means to him to win here,” Johnson said. “It is a cool, amazing experience to go through. … With all the emotion that you have here, I think we are in a good place here.”

There is a sense among drivers already with a victory that the pressure is off because a victory almost assures them of a spot in the 10-race playoffs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among the winners and but said that go-for-broke attitude always prevails at Martinsville Speedway.

“I don’t think I’ve ever raced here walking on egg shells,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I think you can get in trouble pretty quickly if you do that.”

Carl Edwards earned his lone Martinsville victory in October 2011, and otherwise has found the track to be most unforgettable. He’s finished outside the top 10 in his past four starts here, but he said he arrived this weekend with no pressure at all. He, like Earnhardt, already has won this year.

“I’m kind of the eternal optimist when it comes to Martinsville, but it doesn’t seem to work out,” said Edwards, the points leader through five races.

“We’re just going to go out and be extremely aggressive. That’s a fun way to be able to come to a race at Martinsville.”NASCAR-Sprint Cup STP 500 LineupAfter Friday qualifying; race today At Martinsville Speedway Martinsville, Va.

Lap length: .526 miles (Car number in parentheses)

  1. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 99.674 mph.

  2. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 99.548.

  3. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 99.428.

  4. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 99.178.

  5. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 99.048.

  6. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 99.048.

  7. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 98.883.

  8. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 98.846.

  9. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 98.625.

  10. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 98.165.

  11. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 97.764.

  12. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 97.382.

  13. (55) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 98.965.

  14. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 98.929.

  15. (47) A J Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 98.888.

  16. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 98.877.

  17. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 98.712.

  18. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 98.707.

  19. (23) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 98.661.

  20. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 98.625.

  21. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 98.61.

  22. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 98.61.

  23. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 98.599.

  24. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 98.599.

  25. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 98.43.

  26. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 98.379.

  27. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 98.359.

  28. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 98.333.

  29. (32) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 98.246.

  30. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 98.206.

  31. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 98.2.

  32. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 98.002.

  33. (98) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 97.957.

  34. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 97.886.

  35. (26) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 97.82.

  36. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 97.759.

  37. (33) David Stremme, Chevrolet, owner pts.

  38. (83) Ryan Truex, Toyota, owner points.

  39. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, owner points.

  40. (7) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, owner pts.

  41. (30) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, owner pts.

  42. (36) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, owner pts.

  43. (66) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, owner points.

FAILED TO QUALIFY

44.(35) David Reutimann, Ford, 97.759.

Sports, Pages 27 on 03/30/2014

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